We cleared the upper tunnels, searching every offshoot tunnel and out-of-the-way cave in the process. We could have ignored some areas, but I wanted us to get used to working together as a team. I wasn't the only one that had spent my time fighting alone, and those times I wasn't alone, I was fighting with Storm.

Fighting as part of a group requires different types of skills. We needed to understand each other's strengths and weaknesses to be an effective fighting unit.

We had only encountered one group of beasts, a mother cave bear with her cubs, that gave us problems in the upper levels. The adult bear was tier three, close to four, but that was nothing we couldn't handle.

What presented a problem was Siam's plea not to harm the cubs in the process. He wanted to capture the bear cubs so that they might bond with a Beast Tamer. There were four of them, and while I admitted they were cute, I had to be convinced that capturing them was worth the hassle.

"You plan on using the cave system by planting a spirit seed," Siam argued, "we can train these cubs to patrol the passages. If they are bonded with a Beast Tamer, they can be instructed and taught what to kill and who to ignore.

"You could give anyone working the mines a token that the bears would recognize. Anyone without that token would be attacked, and the Cultivator bonded with them informed of an intrusion."

He had convinced me, and with my permission, Zui acted.

Zui grew in her role as the group listened more and more to her suggestions. Suggestions that became orders the longer we delved. She seemed to have an instinctive ability to know where to concentrate our attacks for the largest benefit.

And although her perception wasn't as powerful as mine, she had perfected it to such a state that nothing slipped past her. It allowed her to use a focused light attack to target and damage the animal she wanted us to focus our attention on.

It was this light-focused attack that gained the Mother Bear's attention. Zui had managed to destroy one of the creature's eyes and angered it enough that it came charging toward us, forgetting at the moment that she had cubs to protect.

Siam and I worked together; his actions were rougher and more truncated than usual without his primary bond. The tunnel and cave systems were too narrow for Pluton to be effective, the same reason Storm wasn't helping, but Siam had a stable of other bonded animals he could use.

Siam had been using Sensha for this delve. This bonded animal was an Ankylosaurus, powerful enough and sturdy enough to use as a tank. He had named the beast Sensha because of that exact ability. It was well armored, had spikes growing to protect its neck and head, and a tail long enough and deadly enough to give any animal pause. Fully grown, even a Tyrannosaurs Rex of the same tier would fail to kill one.

Sensha weighed at least four tons, easily a match for the bear, and although he was only tier two, he was fully grown. The bear might be able to kill him if Sensha had been alone. But he wasn't, and the bear, already blinded on one side, was slow to react as the rest of us moved in.

Ming was the other surprise. His martial techniques were perfunctory at best, but he was so adept at placing formation flags that it didn't matter. His performance when manipulating the flags was almost as artistic as my fabric would dance under my control.

He was one of the House Cultivators that had entered the Mystic Realms, and although we hadn't spoken much about his experience, he had come out of the Realm with a few new array blueprints and the knowledge for new formation flag construction and deployment techniques.

He had allowed Aki to copy the technique tokens he had discovered before beginning to experiment and use them. It wasn't until he came to me asking if I had looted a specific type of metal he needed that I discovered what he was working on. He updated me on what he had found and how he was progressing.

His attacking formation had slowed the beast enough that even the difference in tiers allowed Sensha to hold his own.

Once the formations had been deployed, it was only a matter of moments before the bear was dead. Siam moved to capture the beast cubs and store them in a trinket every Beast Tamer carried. A spatial device that was safe and constructed to allow animals to be housed.

We cleared the rest of the upper tunnels without issue. Our performance was adequate but never really tested. I was momentarily disappointed that we hadn't had a chance to test our teamwork before deciding that was foolish.

These upper tunnels were supposed to be easy. If they were teaming with challenges that we had to work in concert to overcome, the lower tunnels and caves would be even more dangerous.

"Unless anyone needs more time," I said, gaining the party's attention. "I think the upper tunnels are clear, and it's time to continue down."

We had stopped to rest after backtracking to the only tunnel we found that led deeper into the tunnel system. I had decided to leave the Oilbirds alone. They were harmless enough and presented no real danger. They wouldn't attack anyone entering the cave system. I would talk to Bao about harvesting their droppings. She had already informed me that she would be posting missions at Contribution Hall for people to harvest the bat guano.

There were no objections to my suggestion that we continue.

Zui increased the brightness of a light construct she was using. It made it easy to see the floor and any obstructions we might stumble across, but it wasn't really needed. Every member had a perception high enough that we could navigate the caverns in total darkness.

But we were creatures of the surface. We were more relaxed when we could see the world around us with our eyes and not our minds. And it didn't hurt that the bright light she released might confuse or blind anything that was stupid enough to attack. If there was something down her stronger than tier five, that second of blindness might save us.

The tunnel opened into a cavern about half the size of Xiwang. It would have been impossible to judge by sight as most of the cavern was obscured, covered in a mass of spider silk. That Lee Wu managed to slip past the webs was impressive, and I made a mental note to speak with him about his abilities and training.

He might make an excellent addition to House Myche. His unique abilities for stealth should allow him to act as a thief, assassin, and investigator for the House. I would test his character, and if I found his motivations free of corruption or tainted by Cultist beliefs, I would offer to adopt him into the House.

"We need to clear the entire cavern," I said, "hopefully, there are more spiders in out-of-the-way caves that can be farmed for silk, but this main cave needs to be cleared of everything."

"Fire would be the quickest," Siam suggested.

"I think I have a better idea," I replied, grinning with anticipation.

Fire would work, but then we would have to deal with the smoke and carbon dioxide. My affinity with wind would mitigate those issues, but why bother when I could use the wind to solve our problem in the first place? And test out the new martial technique I had gained when I'd reached the Nascent Soul Realm.